How US money is replacing textbooks in the Countryside
May 16 (UB Post) The student was gripped by the 42 inch plasma screen, headphones glued to his ears and seemingly lost in the virtual reality he was operating in. Except this was no games arcade, this was a classroom in a school on the edge of a small town called Choyr, in Govisumber Province, around 230km south of Ulaanbaatar.
This school, a 'Mining Centre of Excellence,' like the two other schools I visited has received a chunk of the $286million 'Compact' total donation given to Mongolia from the USA as aid through theMillennium Challenge Corporation funding agency that helps developing countries. The equipment for such centres is inspected and installed by the, Millennium Challenge Account TVET Project. I went with the IT and Instructional Media Specialist to witness exactly how vast sums of money are being put to use to advance education and training, within the last year, in some of the areas that have been key to Mongolia's resource boom.
Despite only having a handful of classroom space at their disposal and having to take shifts in how many students can fit in the classrooms at a time, the equipment this school now has in place is enough to make an English private school's ICT room look inadequate. One room is now filled with nine of these simulators, each costing between $30-40 thousand. The students are able to hone their mining skills with brand new CAT Mining Simulators that look like they're designed for a professional XBOX or Playstation tournament. In another room, there sits another set of simulators of except one is slightly more advanced, more realistic.
This school, a 'Mining Centre of Excellence,' like the two other schools I visited has received a chunk of the $286million 'Compact' total donation given to Mongolia from the USA as aid through theMillennium Challenge Corporation funding agency that helps developing countries. The equipment for such centres is inspected and installed by the, Millennium Challenge Account TVET Project. I went with the IT and Instructional Media Specialist to witness exactly how vast sums of money are being put to use to advance education and training, within the last year, in some of the areas that have been key to Mongolia's resource boom.
Despite only having a handful of classroom space at their disposal and having to take shifts in how many students can fit in the classrooms at a time, the equipment this school now has in place is enough to make an English private school's ICT room look inadequate. One room is now filled with nine of these simulators, each costing between $30-40 thousand. The students are able to hone their mining skills with brand new CAT Mining Simulators that look like they're designed for a professional XBOX or Playstation tournament. In another room, there sits another set of simulators of except one is slightly more advanced, more realistic.
It produces the very same vibrations, sounds and movements as students will encounter once on site in the real mine. Its 41 inch plasma screen and its 31 inch rear view screen. This is the 'Track Type Tractor Simulator System' that costs over $60,000 and allows for training exercises that can measure and record a student's sessions so that teachers can monitor progress. All donated by the US.
Students are sent, once they graduate, to the nearby Coal Mine to operate the vast cranes, trucks and drills that help excavate and collect 2 million cubic metric tons of Coal each year. This mine comprises of three parts, one of which is currently being utilised whilst the other two reserves remain untouched. Without any further expansion to the current site, the mine's coal production could continue for another 300 years. And as the demand expands on this site for a larger workforce, the current flow of students from this particular centre to the mine is steadily increasing.
Students equally get the opportunity to spend a year of work experience in an apprenticeship as an assistant to machine operators. I asked The Head Engineer at the mine how the mine and the centre of excellence's relationship works.
He told The UB Post: "The students, before graduating, they have sufficient experience here with specific areas of operating whilst on their year's job training. So this means they then have enough adequate understanding and experience to work at the mine fully once they graduate. Many graduates from the school are working here professionally already. The crane (pictured) takes four people to operate it, one operator with three assistants. They train the main operators in the school and assistants also graduates from the school. The coal here goes directly to the power plants in Ulaanbaatar, it is not currently exported. The plan is to expand the mining capacity in this mine to 4.5 million tons per year by 2020, there is already plan of building the fifth power plant in the city and so they will manage 70% of the usage of the coal. So the larger workforce is needed".
This is clearly an advanced method of unprecedented interactive learning. But the problem these schools currently face is whether or not the teachers themselves can use such new, hi-tech and unique equipment along with the software in an effective teaching environment. Without sufficient knowledge of how to use the new equipment as teaching tools, the donations would be wasted. That is why this summer $4.3million is being spent across all the schools that have received new equipment on teacher training. Teachers are paid around $300 a month and that figure is the same even in UB. Whilst the Government offers a mere $50,000 on centre renovations a year which is why the renovation and installments being put in place by charitable donations is giving the teachers and assistants positive visions for the future.
Millennium Challenge Corporation is not the only donor seeking improvements to the mining centre of excellence. Beside the current school building is a reasonably large construction site that is building an extension to the centre. That other donor is OT. A Technology College in the far eastern town of Choibalsan in Dornod Province is equally receiving donations from various companies. The classrooms display plaques above their door of donors such as ADB, MAK, KOICA and OT. It's almost their fighting for wall space. MAK installed the very same CAT simulators that are in Choyr, two have been installed (only the day before I arrived).
The Choisbalsan Technology has received an armoury of new and expensive learning materials. Graduates from this technology college will go straight to the Oil Rigs and Mines in Dornod. Students are coming from as far as Darkhan to train to be technicians in this Oil rich province. So far there are two companies that are receiving graduates from Choibalsan, one is Chinese and the other Canadian. Currently out of 1100 students but the training is divided into a year diploma and a two and half year diploma for the 16 year olds. From those, there are eighteen different degrees but the oil rig technicians will take a year's apprenticeship to graduate with immediate employment at the end of their studying. The current figure of graduation is 60%.
Students are sent, once they graduate, to the nearby Coal Mine to operate the vast cranes, trucks and drills that help excavate and collect 2 million cubic metric tons of Coal each year. This mine comprises of three parts, one of which is currently being utilised whilst the other two reserves remain untouched. Without any further expansion to the current site, the mine's coal production could continue for another 300 years. And as the demand expands on this site for a larger workforce, the current flow of students from this particular centre to the mine is steadily increasing.
Students equally get the opportunity to spend a year of work experience in an apprenticeship as an assistant to machine operators. I asked The Head Engineer at the mine how the mine and the centre of excellence's relationship works.
He told The UB Post: "The students, before graduating, they have sufficient experience here with specific areas of operating whilst on their year's job training. So this means they then have enough adequate understanding and experience to work at the mine fully once they graduate. Many graduates from the school are working here professionally already. The crane (pictured) takes four people to operate it, one operator with three assistants. They train the main operators in the school and assistants also graduates from the school. The coal here goes directly to the power plants in Ulaanbaatar, it is not currently exported. The plan is to expand the mining capacity in this mine to 4.5 million tons per year by 2020, there is already plan of building the fifth power plant in the city and so they will manage 70% of the usage of the coal. So the larger workforce is needed".
This is clearly an advanced method of unprecedented interactive learning. But the problem these schools currently face is whether or not the teachers themselves can use such new, hi-tech and unique equipment along with the software in an effective teaching environment. Without sufficient knowledge of how to use the new equipment as teaching tools, the donations would be wasted. That is why this summer $4.3million is being spent across all the schools that have received new equipment on teacher training. Teachers are paid around $300 a month and that figure is the same even in UB. Whilst the Government offers a mere $50,000 on centre renovations a year which is why the renovation and installments being put in place by charitable donations is giving the teachers and assistants positive visions for the future.
Millennium Challenge Corporation is not the only donor seeking improvements to the mining centre of excellence. Beside the current school building is a reasonably large construction site that is building an extension to the centre. That other donor is OT. A Technology College in the far eastern town of Choibalsan in Dornod Province is equally receiving donations from various companies. The classrooms display plaques above their door of donors such as ADB, MAK, KOICA and OT. It's almost their fighting for wall space. MAK installed the very same CAT simulators that are in Choyr, two have been installed (only the day before I arrived).
The Choisbalsan Technology has received an armoury of new and expensive learning materials. Graduates from this technology college will go straight to the Oil Rigs and Mines in Dornod. Students are coming from as far as Darkhan to train to be technicians in this Oil rich province. So far there are two companies that are receiving graduates from Choibalsan, one is Chinese and the other Canadian. Currently out of 1100 students but the training is divided into a year diploma and a two and half year diploma for the 16 year olds. From those, there are eighteen different degrees but the oil rig technicians will take a year's apprenticeship to graduate with immediate employment at the end of their studying. The current figure of graduation is 60%.
Vets and Accountants do one year at this college and then study for their Bachelor's Degree here in UB.
Another school I visited, 280 km from UB, in the small town of Mandalgov, Dundgov Province, has been donated $1million from Millennium Challenge Account TVET Project with the installation of hi-tech equipment. This centre is largely focusing on the training of automotive construction, electrician, plumbing and bricklaying. Conference room, video and audio studio, and multimedia equipment will be given to all 3 schools. The conference room is designed to promote efficiency in networking and collaboration between the schools, video and audio and multimedia equipment is there to develop multimedia instructional contents for students and schools can use the multimedia lab to teach high end computer aided design lessons. It's now in the process of constructing a new conference room capable of holding online video conferences.
Another school I visited, 280 km from UB, in the small town of Mandalgov, Dundgov Province, has been donated $1million from Millennium Challenge Account TVET Project with the installation of hi-tech equipment. This centre is largely focusing on the training of automotive construction, electrician, plumbing and bricklaying. Conference room, video and audio studio, and multimedia equipment will be given to all 3 schools. The conference room is designed to promote efficiency in networking and collaboration between the schools, video and audio and multimedia equipment is there to develop multimedia instructional contents for students and schools can use the multimedia lab to teach high end computer aided design lessons. It's now in the process of constructing a new conference room capable of holding online video conferences.
There is a large computer room beginning construction and two smaller rooms being readied for sound recording. A new school project planned next door to the current school is costing $4.5 million from the Education Ministry. This will include a large cafeteria, Football pitch and event spaces.
Comments
Post a Comment